One more room to go and this whole house will be remodeled.  Of course, then we will be heading outside to spruce it up out there, but as for the interior spaces, the family room in the basement is it.  I was smart and actually took quite a few before pictures of the space.  I am almost embarrassed to admit that this is what the family room has looked like since we bought the house because it is pretty bad, but in keeping with being real, here they are…

These are the pictures I took as we were removing the carpet on the day of closing (in September)!

The above picture is my mother in law who is not afraid to demo anything and was so very helpful when we bought this house and demo-ed a lot!!  I am sure she will be so very happy that I included this pic in here (Hi Reen!!)

These are pictures I took this morning to show you the space as it is right now:

Clearly we have done basically nothing with this space since we moved in.  We ripped out the carpet and sprayed Kilz on the floors and then my mother in law painted the concrete for us. We also did not paint the wood half white and leave the other half.

Did you notice the curtain hanging in the dungeon?  Yes, it is a purple Snuggie!  Ryan felt the need to hang it down there so that when he randomly watched TV in the dungeon, he doesn’t have to deal with the sun shining on the TV.

The works begins in this space tonight with the removal of the rest of the ceiling tile and the installation of new ceiling tile.  Then it will be on to paint, paint, and more paint.  Then it is carpet time, baseboards, and whatever else Ryan needs to do

So there you have it.  The real scary truth of what our basement family room looks like right now.  But, have faith, you saw what the basement bathroom looked like before too and it looks quite fabulous now, if I must say so myself!!

I hope I am not the only one who remembers this episode of The Brady Bunch, but if I am, check out the above video for a glimpse into the song that came to my mind when I was thinking about the wonderful sunshine we are experiencing today.  This winter has been so nice and I cannot complain one bit about it, but I will say that even with our lovely winter, I am thrilled to pieces for spring to arrive.

There is something about a beautiful sunshiny spring day to get your mood lifted and your thoughts moving to cleaning up the yard and freshening up your house.  Maybe every one doesn’t feel that way, but I woke up this morning with motivation to get some things done around the house including cleaning up all the garbage that the previous owners of this house left in the backyard.  When we moved into this house, it was late fall and we had so much interior work to do that we have neglected the outside spaces.  That neglect ends today.  Luke and I will be going outside shortly to get a start on some spring cleaning.  Well, at least the stuff we can get to that isn’t covered by a large pile of snow still!!

Of course, I will take my camera out on the adventure so you can see all the garbage we clear out!

I am sure most of you have noticed just how crazy expensive the movie theater has gotten.  We used to frequent Oak Park Theater for discounted movies and super inexpensive popcorn and pop, but since the flood destroyed it, that is not an option any more.  I really cannot stomach the cost of going to a movie any more.  By the time you pay to get in and buy a snack, you are easily looking at $15 per person.  Insanity!  For our family of 3, it is easily $45-50 to see one money, which last about 2 hours.  Now that is not in my Thrifty Queen frame of mind.  Do you have any idea how many meals a person can make with that same $50 bill?

So my suggestion is Pizza and a Movie Family Night at home.  You can spend a little more money and order a pizza for $15-20 and rent a movie for $5, which saves you a sum total of about $25 (that is 1/2 price) and you got a meal out of the deal instead of just popcorn.

For even more savings, you can purchase frozen pizzas at the grocery store or better yet make you own.  Because of Luke’s gluten intolerance, we are not generally able to buy frozen pizzas, but we do often make our own or occasionally splurge on delivery!

Red Box

As far as renting the movie goes, there are lots of thrifty ways to save in that department too.  A typical new release from a local video store is around $5.00.  To save money, you can subscribe to a service like Blockbuster Video Online where they send you movies that you select.  The only bad thing about this option is that you have to be organized to make sure the movies arrive on time for your movie night.  My new favorite is RedBox.  We have 4 locations in our town with RedBox kiosks.  For $1, you get the movie for 1 night and you return it the next day to the kiosk.  It is simple and so inexpensive.  A great way to save a couple of dollars here and there and still get to watch newer movies.

You may not get to be one of the first to see a brand new movie because you didn’t go to the theater, but Pizza and a Movie Night is a great family event that your kids will remember their whole lives!

The bathroom remodel continues and it is looking pretty bad, but at least there is progress being made.  The other day, I walked into the room and saw this sight. 

I would probably wonder a little more about this, but since Ryan has been working in there, I figured he had a pretty good grasp on what he is doing.  It is basically like an enormous vise that is holding that green piece into place to dry (he adhered it somehow to the concrete).  He is very ingenious, I must say!

As you can see the rest of the room doesn’t look much better.  Ryan worked on taking up the rest of the peel and stick tile that was on the floor when we bought it and then leveled out the floor in a few places.  It really is not fun stuff that is being done right now, but as with any remodeling job, you have to do the dirty work to get to the fun part!

I have decided to switch my blog to Word Press and have changed the blog address as well!  I am still working out the kinks and trying to figure it all out!  Please bear with me…it could be an interesting ride!

Winter has finally arrived in good ol’ No Dak!!  Usually the sights you are about to see would be familiar from November to March, but this year, we have lucked out.  This morning, February 26, 2012, we have our first measurable amount of snow.  Just thought I would share with all you of you!  Sorry if this is the sight from your own window and this is not what you wanted to see!  Happy Snow Day!

Four days ago, I put in my resignation at work and will be leaving my job in less than one week.  I have decided to finish my Associate of Arts degree in hopes of pursing a Bachelors degree in the near future. I have many college credits already under my belt, but most of them are getting old and I don’t want to risk having to retake classes because the credits are not accepted any more.

I have been slowly working on my college degree for a long time, but it just hasn’t been the right time (or what I thought was the right time to finish).  After all that we have been through over the last year, I searched my heart and realized that now is as good of a time as ever.  What I didn’t realize is that I actually only have to finish 1 semester to complete the Associate of Arts degree!!!  5 classes and I will have that finished and actually be about 80 credits into my Bachelors degree.

Unfortunately this doesn’t come without cost and it is going to mean some major sacrifices to make it work with the budget.  We had to quit making payments on the flooded house and are hoping (and praying) that a buyout from the city will come in short order.  We think we have a fairly good chance of this as our house was so close to the river and they are wanting to clear out the houses that are closest to the river in case of future issues.  If this doesn’t happen before the bank takes the house from us in a foreclosure, we will just have to be okay with the credit hit.  We know we are young and can work towards rebuilding our credit.  It took me a while to be at peace with this idea, but it truly is the best option we have to move on and move forward.

We will also have to tweak our budget and work on spending very little over the coming months.  Thank goodness, I am the Thrifty Queen and find such thrill in being frugal!!!  I am up for the challenge and am excited to finish a goal that I have been pursuing for a long time.

Here’s to a step of faith and a belief that what faith really means is to take a step towards what you dream of even when it is very hard to see the end result.  I guess it really wouldn’t be faith if we could see the entire picture!!

 I don’t think I can remember a year that I have been so happy to see end.  2011 was not our year.  House flooding, church flooding, childhood memories rushing down the river, job uncertainty, financial worries, plans of foreclosure, and an unending abundance of what ifs? and where do we go from here? questions.  Never in my life did I think we would be facing so many questions in our life.  I will be pushing 2011 out the door tomorrow night and with thankfulness for a new year, I will be looking in anticipation to a year of blessings.

Today when I was feeling sort of down and wondering why so much has happened to us in such a short amount of time, I took out my Kindle and opened up my devotional for the day.  Just what I needed to hear.  Almost as if God had specifically sent it just to me….

I am exhausted from crying for help; my throat is parched.  My eyes are swollen from weeping, waiting for my God to help me.    Psalm 69:3 NLT

Do you ever feel tired?  I mean tired of just trying so hard and yet just moving inches.  Maybe you’re trying to mend a relationship, advance your career, or just trying to gather yourself emotionally.  Despite these valleys in your life, don’t give up on hope.  This hope is the purposefulness of your tribulations that God has planned to produce the most beautiful story about you.  Be patient, strong, and trust in Him.  Do not give up. 

In the new year, I am believing that through all of this, God is going to use the heart ache for good and that I will some day look back on this time and understand the very purpose for the journey we have been on.  I truly do believe that good will come out of it and even though it doesn’t always make it easy and there are still lots of days where I want to scream, it will be good great!